1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of cooking appliances and more particularly to a space saving cooking appliance with a cylindrical or partially spherical heating cavity.
2. Description of Related Art
Ovens, and particularly microwave ovens, have traditionally been shaped as parallelepipeds with rectangular cross sections. These box type ovens, roasters, toasters, etc. do not make optimum use of the space available in a typical kitchen. Also, in most microwave ovens, the cooking cavity is rectangular while the turntable is round. This results in considerable wasted space as well as to microwave modes typical to rectangular cavities. It is well known that these modes lead to hot and cold spots in the cavity.
There have been some attempts to construct microwave ovens of different shape. U.S. Design Pat. No. D439,795 teaches an oven with a cut-off front. In other words, looking down from the top, one sees an oven with a corner cut off.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,107,502 teaches a microwave oven with a traditional rectangular shape outer case and a semi-circular cavity.
Another problem is that in the modern kitchen, there are many other types of cooking or heating devices besides and oven or microwave oven. There are generally toasters, broilers, grills, rotisseries. These appliances all take up valuable kitchen counter space and lead to overcrowding and increased costs. There have been several attempts in the prior art to combine a small number of these appliances. For example, U.S. Design Pat. No. D305,969 combines a toaster with a conventional rectangular microwave oven. However, this solution only removes one of the many appliances from the cluttered kitchen counter. What is badly needed is a single appliance that conserves counter space, and combines several appliances while, at the same time, preserves an overall aesthetic appearance.
There have been several attempts to use a cylindrical heating cavity including U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,632,921, 5,990,466 and 6,011,249. However, these inventions do not have direct access into the cylinder from the side to insert and remove food. U.S. Pat. No. 4,107,502 has a side door access along the full cavity height; however, this invention uses only a semi-cylindrical cavity. This again leads to unwanted modes in the chamber.
What is badly needed is a space saving cooking appliance that has a minimum surface to volume ratio thus taking up minimum countertop space; combines several common appliances into one to again optimize the use of space, and uses either a cylindrical or spherical-like cavity for microwave heating to eliminate unwanted rectangular modes.
The present invention provides a multifunctional cooking apparatus that is capable of safely and efficiently operating as both a main oven and as several auxiliary cooking appliances simultaneously. The present invention can combine the functions of different appliances, thereby eliminating the need for multiple separate appliances and saving valuable kitchen counter top and storage space.
The present invention solves the problems discussed above with a combination cooking appliance that can neatly fit into a kitchen room corner or against a wall. While there are many possible embodiments of the present invention, the fundamental concept is that of a prism, full cylinder, flat-backed cylinder or spherical shaped case to hold a basic oven with the actual cooking space in the oven being cylindrical or spherical. With the exception of the spherical case, the oven has a flat top and bottom. The oven can usually be a microwave oven; however, any oven or heating unit is within the scope of the present invention no matter what its source of thermal energy is.
The prism shaped case has an arcuate (rounded) front. There is a vertical apex in the rear for easy fitting into a corner angle. The full cylindrical case is a complete cylinder, and the spherical unit is a section of a sphere that has a flat bottom. The flat-backed cylinder is designed to be placed against a wall or panel. All of the embodiments of the present invention are space saving; however, the prism unit is generally designed to fit into a corner and is more classical, while the spherical unit is the most modern and avant-garde.
The basic oven unit can be enhanced by adding other cooking appliances to the right and left (looking straight in) both in single tier and in double or even triple tier arrangements. Auxiliary appliances such as a broiler, a toaster, a barbecue (BBQ), rotisserie, a roaster, coffee maker, egg cooker, or a grill can be added to the basic design. Any other cooking appliance can be added to the combination embodiments of the present invention and are within its scope.
Another embodiment of the present invention is a half cylinder with a flat back, top, and bottom. This can be changed to an ellipsoid to gain more frontal space if desired. Again, the basic oven can be augmented with auxiliary appliances such as a BBQ, toaster, broiler, grill, roaster, or coffee maker.
The present invention has at least one access means or door on the front on the curved surface. This can be any type of access or door and can extend the full vertical distance or only part of the vertical distance. In various combination embodiments with auxiliary appliances, there may be several doors or access ports for the different appliances.
While a microwave oven is usually the main oven or cooking space in the embodiments of the present invention, any other types of heating or cooking means are within the scope of the present invention. The power supply and magnetron (in the case of a microwave oven) can be placed into remaining space in the structure. The auxiliary appliances can also be microwave, or can be conventional electric or other heating or cooking means and methods. There is generally a control panel in easy reach of the user that is used to control the main cooking space and the auxiliary appliances; however, various auxiliary appliances can have their own separate control panels if necessary. The control panel can be build into the door or access port, or it can be located anywhere within easy reach of the user.
It is well known that microwaves set up rectangular modes in the rectangular cooking spaces of conventional microwave ovens. These rectangular modes have hot and cold spots that make uniform cooking difficult. For this reason, almost all conventional microwave ovens have rotating turntables to move food around and avoid the hot/cold spot effect. A few conventional ovens (usually older ones) may also have mode stirrers which are some sort of rotating paddle. Cylindrical and spherical sections have more uniform modes if properly excited by the microwave source. This leads to a more uniform temperature distribution. In many of the embodiments of the present invention, no turntable is needed due to the uniformity of the field; however, a rotating turntable and/or a mode stirrer is within the scope of the present invention and can be used.
A xe2x80x9cphilosophyxe2x80x9d of the designs contained in the present invention is that the ovens described can cook or preheat many different kinds of food at the same time. For example, one could cook pizza in one of the microwave main ovens, a whole chicken in a rotisserie, bread in a toaster, etc. There is no waiting time as is the case with a single microwave oven. A family desiring to have dinner does not have to wait for individual items to cook in a single oven. Conventional microwave ovens are sometimes advertised to be able to do anything (in terms of types of cooking); however, because the conventional prior art oven can only cook one thing at a time in one mode, people wanting to simultaneously do different types of cooking must wait. The present invention solves this waiting problem.